When Putin says that he “never does his friends in,” this is because he is afraid to get on the wrong side of the siloviki who are close to him. From the correspondence between the editors and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, inmate of Correctional Facility 7 of the Federal Penitentiary Service Directorate for the Republic of Karelia, the city of Segezha

Putin, who is associated with certainty may accelerate the processes of decay. For his part, Medvedev, with his diffuse position and penchant for mimicry, might slow them down. But what is better for Russia? Putin's regime, relying on security structures and their control of property, is inherently repressive and incapable of modernisation.

Another factor of decline is the obsession of the power apparatus, above all security men, with their personal enrichment. All civilisations perished when their elites started thinking about their own purses. Sparta and the Ottoman Empire were invincible until the Spartans and the Janissaries engaged in trade...

Read Lilia Shevtsova

The President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev sits down with Novaya Gazeta Editor-in-Chief Dmitry Muratov

Granted, Putin has been working hard all these years. No, not like a "galley slave". But, for example, on the the mysterious Olympia yacht, allegedly presented by Roman Abramovich. So now Putin and his entourage are protecting not an abstract power, but a way of life that is unparalleled anywhere else in the world.

The rain came pouring down on the thousands in the crowd at the Solidarity movement’s protest rally at Chistoprudny Boulevard. “I hope that after this protest, the phrase ‘it’s raining like cats and United Russia’ will become part of the language. United Russia, no doubt, has gone to the dogs,” said critically acclaimed writer and journalist Dmitry Bykov.

Russia wants to unite with Belarus. In preparing for this reputable event, President Aleksandr Lukashenko has enforced laws that make the special services a special caste with the right to kill and torture. This is what we are being offered to unite with...

Novaya Gazeta has asked its readers to express their views on what the tactics of the liberal opposition should be with regard to nationalists. The majority (59% out of 3460 respondents) said that “it is possible to cooperate with representatives of healthy nationalist forces”...

We won’t even address the fairness of those suspicions of Prokhorov being a spoiler candidate, only a much more significant one than Dmitry Mezentsev. But not the whole electorate of Yavlinsky is ready to vote for Prokhorov, Mironov or Zyuganov. Many of them just won’t go vote at all, and a low voter turn-out that increases Putin’s chances of winning without having a run-off election...

At one of Khodorkovsky’s last meetings with journalists, I asked what Khodorkovsky was hoping for and to whom he would turn as a last resort, since he was obviously in danger of being the next to go down. Honestly, I figured he would say Voloshin. But after a pause, Khodorkovsky quietly said, “Abramovich, probably”

Elections are to be held in Chukchi Peninsula (Chukotka) on 13 March. Roman Abramovich, the most celebrated speaker of Russia’s regional parliaments, is once again running for Duma deputy and by law must disclose to voters information...

I met this tall, think young man with black hair around 15 years ago. At that time he was, I think 25 years old and had graduated from Moscow State University and Harvard. It is difficult to have a real talent not catch your eye. Some time later, Vasily Aleksanyan became the head of legal department at YUKOS, the Russia’s second largest, and then largest, oil company...

By about one in the afternoon in Kiev, Judge Kireyev’s sped up his already quite fast gibberish and started talking nineteen to the dozen: “…Taking into account the aforementioned… The defendant has not shown remorse… To be sentenced to seven years in accordance with article 365 of Part 3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine… Detain… Lay financial damages in the amount of… In accordance with the law, the verdict is subject to appeal with the Appellate Court...”

Read Olga Musafirova

By not allowing their projects to free themselves from the corridors of the presidential administration, housed in the same building that was once home to members of the Politburo and regional committee secretaries, the inspectors from the administration are not giving controlling politicians the chance to become elected politicians. An example is Pravoye delo party from Leonid Gozman’s times. But as soon as a politician like Prokhorov stops playing by their rules, builds up charisma that, theoretically, would allow him win elected office, he is liquidated...

Read Andrey Kolesnikov

This is the election campaign platform of our Tsar, our father, the man who allocates everything to everyone himself. This is the manual operation platform. As Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov admitted, there’s a reason why the prime minister put the platform together in writing. Staying in line with this logic, he is going to take care of civil servants and retirees, his backbone of support, with his own two hands...

A fake issue of Novaya Gazeta made its way around Moscow on Friday. On the front page was a giant portrait of Vladimir Putin. The intrigue of anticipating a second term for President Dmitry Medvedev also turned out to be feigned: everything proceeded according to a scenario that could be described as extremely banal, not to mention humiliating for the current head of state. Putin is running for president, and that’s not all – he has been nominated by Medvedev, who is running for prime minister, as he tentatively heads the pre-election list of United Russia...

Read Andrey Kolesnikov